The Illegitimacy Rate is Headed in One Direction... Up

Between 1750 and 1850 there was a significant rise in the number of illegitimate children. Why? It's quite simple. The rise in the illegitimacy rate was due to the rise of love. More and more people moved into the cities during this time period and thus met more people. Think of it as modern-day dating. If we went to a public high school then there would be a 100% chance of us interacting with boys our age, this would (hopefully) lead to dating. Now the problems start when there are say 300 boys and 400 girls in a given class. It is possible for every boy to be taken at one time. That's what the rural towns were like, you only had so many options.



Yep, that one would be you ^

 

 

Now let's imagine prom is coming up. What is a girl to do?! Every boy in the class already has a date! Don't sweat it, nowadays it's easy. Just sign up for a dating website (...or Tinder). With the click of a button you have increased your potential boyfriends/prom dates exponentially! We can equate that to the people in the nineteenth century moving into cities. Just a small town girl, who was living in a lonely world, took the midnight train and now she had a ton of eligible bachelors in the palm of her hand. She could weed out those who were not compatible and choose a potential husband.

 

Much better.

 

 

 

Now comes the rise of the illegitimacy rate. We're (mostly) all adults here so I'm just going to tell it like it is, people were having premarital sex. As we discussed in class everyone loved each other and everyone was loving each other. Methods of protection were not good during this era and that led to pregnancy and... wait for it... babies! When people began to live in closer quarters (cities) they stopped the whole 'shunning thing'. So what? She's not married and she's pregnant... could be worse. (Not the greatest logic but you get the idea)

By the 1840's one in three births occurred out of wedlock. So some of them got married. However, poverty and economic uncertainty was likely the cause for those who didn't wed.